Final answer:
To determine if shooting style affects free-throw performance in basketball, an experiment controlling for distance, ball, and skill is designed. Randomizing the shot order reduces bias, and hypothesis testing, which includes a null and an alternative hypothesis, is used to evaluate the data.
Step-by-step explanation:
a) Explanatory variable: Shooting style (granny-style or traditional)
Response variable: Number of shots made
b) Treatments: Shooting style (granny-style or traditional)
c) Randomizing the order of shots helps eliminate potential biases introduced by factors such as fatigue, warming up, or improvement over time during the practice session.
d) Controlling factors like distance to the hoop, basketball used, and shooter's skill level ensures that these variables don't affect the comparison between the two shooting styles.
e) Hypotheses:
Null hypothesis (H0): The ability to make free-throws is not affected by the shooting style.
Alternative hypothesis (Ha): The ability to make free-throws is lower when shooting granny-style.
f) Correct, based on the experiment's results alone, it's not sufficient to conclude that the shooting style is the definitive cause of the observed differences in free-throw success rates. Further statistical analysis, such as hypothesis testing or a comparison of means, would be necessary to determine whether the observed differences are statistically significant and not due to random chance.
Conclusively attributing the difference in success rates solely to the shooting style requires careful statistical analysis to rule out other potential confounding factors or biases that might influence the outcomes.